Blame cows, trees and the sun, not just humans

Jonathan Thompson says in your March 5
issue that “thanks to humans, the earth is warming up, sea
levels will rise, and pestilence and severe weather events will
follow” (HCN, 3/5/07).

Approximately 40 percent of
our warming is due to solar activity. Cows contribute methane gas
and even our forests give off carbon dioxide. Sea levels are
predicted to rise by approximately one foot, the same rise we have
had over the past 100 years. The Intergovern-mental Panel on
Climate Change, an oft-quoted U.N. agency, says that there is no
evidence that extreme weather events have increased over the past
century.

Global warming is real, it is a serious problem,
and we should do all we reasonably can to slow it down, but humans
are not the only problem. Let’s skip the hyperbole and just
have the facts.